This document provides a summary of Tania Modleski's analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's film Rebecca from her book "The Women Who Knew Too Much". Modleski examines Rebecca through a feminist critical lens, analyzing the mother-daughter relationship and female oedipal trajectory depicted in the film. She also discusses the film's adaptation of a "feminine text", the desire of women for other women, and the conspicuous absence of the title character Rebecca throughout the film despite her lingering presence. Modleski's analysis traces the resistances in the text to the patriarchal assimilation of femininity.
This document provides an analysis of how Jerome K. Jerome's short story "Silhouettes" employs modernist techniques through its use of stream of consciousness, symbolism, and challenging of gender roles. It compares these elements in "Silhouettes" to D.H. Lawrence's short stories "Odour of Chrysanthemums" and "Tickets, Please," noting their shared interests in internalized perspectives, greater freedom in discussing sexuality, and emphasis on psychological development over plot. Examples are given of how each text uses nature imagery, dreams, and coded symbols to represent characters' repressed thoughts and critique patriarchal society. The document concludes that both Jerome and Lawrence reduce the importance of narrative in favor of exploring the
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of the 1995 film adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. It discusses how the film portrays the main characters of Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, with a particular focus on Demi Moore's portrayal of the complex character of Hester. It also analyzes how the film compares to the original novel and explores themes of feminism, individuality, and societal repression present in both works.
This document provides an overview and analysis of Martin Amis's novel Time's Arrow. It summarizes the plot, in which the narrative is told backwards as the protagonist's life in reverse from death to birth. It analyzes how this technique, along with an unreliable narrator, allows Amis to satirize and critique the Holocaust by reversing morality. The document also discusses Amis's influences, themes of power and sexuality, and interpretations of the ambiguous and ironic ending.
1) Michael Cunningham's short story "Little Man" is told from Rumpelstiltskin's perspective using an unconventional first person perspective and second person narration. This allows the reader to feel personally connected to Rumpelstiltskin while also maintaining an intriguing distance.
2) Through Rumpelstiltskin's internal monologues and reflections, the reader gains insight into his humanity, insecurities, desperation, and broken heart over his unrequited love for the miller's daughter.
3) The climactic moment of the story occurs when the queen speaks Rumpelstiltskin's name, literally breaking him in half internally and reflecting the
Elit 48 c class 12 post qhq singulars vs pluralsjordanlachance
The document discusses the lyric poetry of Wallace Stevens, specifically analyzing his poems "The Snow Man" and "The Emperor of Ice-Cream". It also discusses Mina Loy's modernist poem "Parturition" written in the style of stream of consciousness. Key points include analyzing the themes, symbols, and language in Stevens' poems, comparing his lyric poetry to modernism. It also analyzes Loy's poem in the context of feminist theory and her feminist manifesto, examining how it uses childbirth as a metaphor for patriarchal oppression.
The identity of destruction and the construction of identity in L’amour la fa...IJAEMSJORNAL
Francophone diaspora literature reveals unstable worlds. In facts, the metamorphosis of the self would be a reflection of a number of unconventional narrative forms: reflexive territories whose benchmarks would be, mainly, at the level of migratory movements. Such a broad subject could be partially identified on the basis of a definite corpus. Two authors draw attention to this: Assia Djebar and Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine. Their respective works, L'Amour la fantasia and Une Odeur de mantèque, lead the recipient to a rather intriguing journey insofar as memory, enunciation and temporality intersect with the fields of otherness and de-territoriality. By means of a comparative approach, we propose a modest illumination on these inner-self and outer-self problematized spaces. Weighing with all their strenght on postmodernity, they still resonate in the 21st century with the critical margins of the collective unconscious.
Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest uses a mental hospital as a lens to critique society and illustrate how those who do not follow social norms are oppressed. The patients, through the narration of Chief Bromden, represent individuals marginalized and controlled by a powerful system called "The Combine." While the patients come to accept their circumstances, the arrival of Randle McMurphy brings laughter and rebellion against the strict Nurse Ratched. The novel examines theories of power dynamics, discipline, and the role of the individual in perpetuating the status quo through its portrayal of the dehumanizing asylum system and the patients' empowerment through humor and solidarity.
The document discusses a lecture on postmodernism and selections from Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man. It provides context about postmodernism and examines excerpts from the novel's prologue through discussion questions. The discussion questions analyze themes of invisibility and identity within the novel's introduction.
This document provides an analysis of how Jerome K. Jerome's short story "Silhouettes" employs modernist techniques through its use of stream of consciousness, symbolism, and challenging of gender roles. It compares these elements in "Silhouettes" to D.H. Lawrence's short stories "Odour of Chrysanthemums" and "Tickets, Please," noting their shared interests in internalized perspectives, greater freedom in discussing sexuality, and emphasis on psychological development over plot. Examples are given of how each text uses nature imagery, dreams, and coded symbols to represent characters' repressed thoughts and critique patriarchal society. The document concludes that both Jerome and Lawrence reduce the importance of narrative in favor of exploring the
This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of the 1995 film adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. It discusses how the film portrays the main characters of Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, with a particular focus on Demi Moore's portrayal of the complex character of Hester. It also analyzes how the film compares to the original novel and explores themes of feminism, individuality, and societal repression present in both works.
This document provides an overview and analysis of Martin Amis's novel Time's Arrow. It summarizes the plot, in which the narrative is told backwards as the protagonist's life in reverse from death to birth. It analyzes how this technique, along with an unreliable narrator, allows Amis to satirize and critique the Holocaust by reversing morality. The document also discusses Amis's influences, themes of power and sexuality, and interpretations of the ambiguous and ironic ending.
1) Michael Cunningham's short story "Little Man" is told from Rumpelstiltskin's perspective using an unconventional first person perspective and second person narration. This allows the reader to feel personally connected to Rumpelstiltskin while also maintaining an intriguing distance.
2) Through Rumpelstiltskin's internal monologues and reflections, the reader gains insight into his humanity, insecurities, desperation, and broken heart over his unrequited love for the miller's daughter.
3) The climactic moment of the story occurs when the queen speaks Rumpelstiltskin's name, literally breaking him in half internally and reflecting the
Elit 48 c class 12 post qhq singulars vs pluralsjordanlachance
The document discusses the lyric poetry of Wallace Stevens, specifically analyzing his poems "The Snow Man" and "The Emperor of Ice-Cream". It also discusses Mina Loy's modernist poem "Parturition" written in the style of stream of consciousness. Key points include analyzing the themes, symbols, and language in Stevens' poems, comparing his lyric poetry to modernism. It also analyzes Loy's poem in the context of feminist theory and her feminist manifesto, examining how it uses childbirth as a metaphor for patriarchal oppression.
The identity of destruction and the construction of identity in L’amour la fa...IJAEMSJORNAL
Francophone diaspora literature reveals unstable worlds. In facts, the metamorphosis of the self would be a reflection of a number of unconventional narrative forms: reflexive territories whose benchmarks would be, mainly, at the level of migratory movements. Such a broad subject could be partially identified on the basis of a definite corpus. Two authors draw attention to this: Assia Djebar and Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine. Their respective works, L'Amour la fantasia and Une Odeur de mantèque, lead the recipient to a rather intriguing journey insofar as memory, enunciation and temporality intersect with the fields of otherness and de-territoriality. By means of a comparative approach, we propose a modest illumination on these inner-self and outer-self problematized spaces. Weighing with all their strenght on postmodernity, they still resonate in the 21st century with the critical margins of the collective unconscious.
Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest uses a mental hospital as a lens to critique society and illustrate how those who do not follow social norms are oppressed. The patients, through the narration of Chief Bromden, represent individuals marginalized and controlled by a powerful system called "The Combine." While the patients come to accept their circumstances, the arrival of Randle McMurphy brings laughter and rebellion against the strict Nurse Ratched. The novel examines theories of power dynamics, discipline, and the role of the individual in perpetuating the status quo through its portrayal of the dehumanizing asylum system and the patients' empowerment through humor and solidarity.
The document discusses a lecture on postmodernism and selections from Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man. It provides context about postmodernism and examines excerpts from the novel's prologue through discussion questions. The discussion questions analyze themes of invisibility and identity within the novel's introduction.
This document provides a summary and analysis of Winston's transition from a structuralist to poststructuralist discourse in George Orwell's novel 1984. In the beginning, Winston analyzes the political situation from a structuralist perspective, believing the proles will overthrow the oppressive Party. However, after being tortured, Winston comes to accept the Party's poststructuralist discourse of doublethink and the mutability of history and language. The document analyzes this transition through the lenses of structuralism, poststructuralism, Foucault's theories of discourse and power, and postmodern architecture. It argues Winston ultimately betrays his beliefs by allowing the Party to fully control his mind.
This document provides a summary of a student's paper analyzing two graphic novels: Death of Wolverine and Fun Home. It discusses how both comics use unique narrative techniques to convey temporality spatially through images and text. Specifically, it analyzes how Death of Wolverine uses color in the text boxes to represent sensory experiences, establishing a primacy effect. The student argues this technique merits comparing the two works and applying narrative theory to understand comics.
This document provides an overview of the book "Crime Fiction" by John Scaggs. It summarizes:
1) The book presents a concise history of the crime fiction genre from its origins in biblical narratives up to modern works. It explores key subgenres like mystery, detective fiction, hard-boiled novels, police procedurals, and historical crime fiction.
2) Scaggs locates texts within their social and historical contexts. He outlines critical concepts used to study the genre like gender studies, narrative theory, and film theory.
3) The book considers how television and film have adapted classics like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie stories. It examines future directions for crime fiction in the
This document discusses different perspectives for analyzing popular fiction, including Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled detective novels. It covers views of the author, reader, social context, genre codes, and medium. Regarding Hammett's works specifically, it notes they were successful on both a casual and careful reading level, offering absorbing stories and rich language. The document also examines criteria for classifying crime fiction genres, such as detective, noir, and thriller.
From the particular to the universal re-reading pessimism in dream on monke...Fatima Gul
This document provides a summary and analysis of Derek Walcott's play Dream on Monkey Mountain. It argues that while the play seems to present a pessimistic view of attempts to reclaim African identity, a closer reading reveals nuance. While mimicry of white colonizers and the African revival both initially appear futile according to the theories of Fanon, Walcott's text can be read more optimistically. Specifically, the initial stages of Makak's reclamation of his African identity seem authentic in addressing his suffering, despite the revival ultimately descending into madness. This suggests the universal and particular should not be viewed as entirely oppositional.
1. Narrative is defined as a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship that occurs over time, with a beginning, middle, and end.
2. Theorists have identified common narrative structures and elements across different texts, including character archetypes and codes that help audiences understand and interpret narratives.
3. Narrative analysis involves considering how various narrative elements like mise-en-scene, editing, and sound work together to construct meaning for audiences.
This document provides a summary and analysis of themes in Jean Rhys' novels Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea. Both novels follow young women from the West Indies struggling to survive in patriarchal societies. While Voyage in the Dark is set in 1920s London and Wide Sargasso Sea is set in the 19th century Caribbean, both novels explore themes of female loneliness, despair, and oppression under patriarchal systems. Neither novel follows a traditional bildungsroman structure, as the protagonists are unable to develop or find their place in society due to their marginalized positions. The analysis draws connections to Jack Halberstam's concept of "shadow feminism" to understand how Rhys
The document provides a detailed summary and analysis of key scenes and characters in the movie Watchmen directed by Zack Snyder. It analyzes four important scenes that establish characters and the alternate universe setting. It also examines the complex characters of Rorschach, The Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan in depth. Finally, it discusses the major themes of the movie such as who watches the watchmen, never compromising morality, and the view of life as an insignificant phenomenon. The document analyzes key elements of the plot, characters, and themes of the Watchmen movie.
4
This document contains a review of the historical novel "HHhH" by Laurent Binet about the assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich. The review discusses how Binet insists on only using factual details and criticizes other historical fiction works for fictionalizing details, yet still engages in some fictionalization himself. While Binet's style is distracting at times, the facts about Heydrich's rise to power as a key Nazi leader and his role in the Holocaust are compelling. The review also provides background on Heydrich and the plot of Binet's novel focusing on the Czech assassins who killed Heydrich in 1942.
This document provides an agenda and information for an online EWRT 1C class on Franz Kafka's novella "The Metamorphosis". The class will include reading the novella, an introduction to Kafka as the author, and discussing the historical and literary contexts. Kafka is introduced as an Austrian-Jewish writer from Prague in the late 19th/early 20th century. The novella is then analyzed including its use of third-person narration from the perspective of Gregor Samsa after he transforms into an insect. Students are assigned to read the novella and answer one of several discussion questions in 200-300 words for homework.
This document provides an overview of some key characteristics of science fiction as a genre based on an analysis of several example texts. It discusses how SF explores transformations to human existence through imagined technologies and ideas. It presents its stories in the context of scientific thought at the time. It also often values progress, tolerance, democracy and rationalism. The document then analyzes some works by John Wyndham to illustrate examples of changed existences, a background of science, tolerance and rationalism in his stories.
This document discusses the concept of "historiographic metafiction", a type of postmodern fiction that is both metafictional and historical in its references to past texts and contexts. It argues that postmodern fiction engages with both literary and historical intertexts through parody and intertextuality. By embedding these intertextual pasts, postmodern fiction both asserts and questions notions of history and literature as human constructs. This doubles as a formal marking of historicity. The document provides examples of novels that exemplify historiographic metafiction, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
This document provides an overview of Victorian pornography and how it is defined. It discusses how pornography emerged as a distinct genre in the 18th century aimed at arousing audiences for commercial gain. Victorian pornography in particular targeted upper and middle class men as an exclusive genre. The document analyzes six Victorian pornographic novels published between 1828-1908 and discusses how they will be examined through the lenses of rape pornography, flagellation pornography, and theories of sadism. The overall argument is that Victorian pornography constructs women in complex and ambivalent ways beyond just portraying an idealized "pornotopia".
The document compares how The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Power Politics by Margaret Atwood portray female protagonists struggling against the restrictive expectations of patriarchal societies. All three works illustrate how the women attempt to establish independent identities separate from their prescribed social roles, using symbolic elements and the protagonists' growing self-awareness of their oppression.
This document discusses metalepsis in drama and provides background information on postmodern literature. It begins by defining mimesis and diegesis as two ontological frames in drama. It then provides context that postmodernism emerged after World War II as a reaction to the new state of the world. It lists several key characteristics of postmodern literature, including a focus on themes of memory, loss, death, and meaninglessness. It notes that postmodern works often feature fragmentation, discontinuity, uncertainty, experimentation, limited points of view, nonlinear narration, intertextuality, deconstruction, the absurd, magical realism, pastiche, and metalepsis.
Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern mediaSianLynes
Some audiences are not convinced by postmodern media because postmodern works deliberately distort reality, rely heavily on intertextuality and references that some viewers may not understand, and reject traditional narratives. Postmodern works like the film "Drive" and the TV shows "Flight of the Conchords" and "Family Guy" confuse and frustrate some viewers through their manipulation of elements like time, space, narrative, and their self-reflexive style over coherent plot. Likewise, Lady Gaga's stage persona and music rely heavily on references and simulations of identity that cause some to distrust her as an authentic artist. For these reasons, some find postmodern media vacuous and trapped in meaningless references rather than producing new meaningful content.
The Coen Brothers are known for their quirky dark comedies like Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Ladykillers. They often work together, with Joel directing and Ethan producing. They have been nominated for 10 Oscars, winning for screenwriting Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Their films have been described as postmodern due to their self-referential storytelling and examination of genre conventions. One example is their film Fargo, which pastiches the film noir genre against a snowy backdrop.
This document discusses various artists and their approaches to narrative in contemporary art. It examines different types of narratives such as cultural narratives, disrupted narratives, meta-narratives, and performed narratives. Various artists are mentioned who employ techniques like montage, nonlinear time, incorporating fiction and reality, and questioning traditional narrative structures. The document also references theories around narrative from thinkers like Barthes, Deleuze, Guattari, and Ricoeur.
The document discusses various concepts related to narrative theory, including binary oppositions, levels of narrative, and frames. It examines how some films by David Lynch seem to contradict common assumptions about causality, linearity, and character identity in narratives. The document also discusses the concepts of multiplicity, becoming, simulation, and rupturing narratives. It provides examples of artworks that demonstrate these concepts, challenging traditional understandings of narratives.
The document discusses the rise of the novel as a genre in the 18th century. It provides definitions of the novel and traces its origins from prototypes in Elizabethan literature. The rise of the novel coincided with the rise of the middle class in Europe as printing technology advanced and literacy rates increased. Early novels focused on middle-class protagonists and included elements of realism to engage readers. Major novelists like Defoe, Fielding, and Richardson helped establish the novel as a new legitimate form through styles like the epistolary, realistic, and philosophical novels.
Laura Mulvey argues that mainstream cinema uses the male gaze to manipulate visual pleasure, coding eroticism into patriarchal order by making women passive objects for the male viewer. She draws on Freudian concepts like scopophilia, or pleasure in looking, which privileges the male perspective. However, fetishistic scopophilia can reduce women to sex symbols to resolve men's fear of femininity. While the male gaze remains dominant in media, society is becoming less patriarchal, requiring more eroticism to maintain visual pleasure in cultural works.
Laura Mulvey is a prominent British feminist film theorist who developed the influential concept of the "male gaze" in cinema. She argued that classical Hollywood films positioned the male viewer to identify with male protagonists and objectify female characters who were presented as objects of male desire. Her 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" used psychoanalytic concepts from Freud and Lacan to analyze how the cinematic apparatus reinforced gender stereotypes and the objectification of women on screen.
This document provides a summary and analysis of Winston's transition from a structuralist to poststructuralist discourse in George Orwell's novel 1984. In the beginning, Winston analyzes the political situation from a structuralist perspective, believing the proles will overthrow the oppressive Party. However, after being tortured, Winston comes to accept the Party's poststructuralist discourse of doublethink and the mutability of history and language. The document analyzes this transition through the lenses of structuralism, poststructuralism, Foucault's theories of discourse and power, and postmodern architecture. It argues Winston ultimately betrays his beliefs by allowing the Party to fully control his mind.
This document provides a summary of a student's paper analyzing two graphic novels: Death of Wolverine and Fun Home. It discusses how both comics use unique narrative techniques to convey temporality spatially through images and text. Specifically, it analyzes how Death of Wolverine uses color in the text boxes to represent sensory experiences, establishing a primacy effect. The student argues this technique merits comparing the two works and applying narrative theory to understand comics.
This document provides an overview of the book "Crime Fiction" by John Scaggs. It summarizes:
1) The book presents a concise history of the crime fiction genre from its origins in biblical narratives up to modern works. It explores key subgenres like mystery, detective fiction, hard-boiled novels, police procedurals, and historical crime fiction.
2) Scaggs locates texts within their social and historical contexts. He outlines critical concepts used to study the genre like gender studies, narrative theory, and film theory.
3) The book considers how television and film have adapted classics like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie stories. It examines future directions for crime fiction in the
This document discusses different perspectives for analyzing popular fiction, including Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled detective novels. It covers views of the author, reader, social context, genre codes, and medium. Regarding Hammett's works specifically, it notes they were successful on both a casual and careful reading level, offering absorbing stories and rich language. The document also examines criteria for classifying crime fiction genres, such as detective, noir, and thriller.
From the particular to the universal re-reading pessimism in dream on monke...Fatima Gul
This document provides a summary and analysis of Derek Walcott's play Dream on Monkey Mountain. It argues that while the play seems to present a pessimistic view of attempts to reclaim African identity, a closer reading reveals nuance. While mimicry of white colonizers and the African revival both initially appear futile according to the theories of Fanon, Walcott's text can be read more optimistically. Specifically, the initial stages of Makak's reclamation of his African identity seem authentic in addressing his suffering, despite the revival ultimately descending into madness. This suggests the universal and particular should not be viewed as entirely oppositional.
1. Narrative is defined as a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship that occurs over time, with a beginning, middle, and end.
2. Theorists have identified common narrative structures and elements across different texts, including character archetypes and codes that help audiences understand and interpret narratives.
3. Narrative analysis involves considering how various narrative elements like mise-en-scene, editing, and sound work together to construct meaning for audiences.
This document provides a summary and analysis of themes in Jean Rhys' novels Voyage in the Dark and Wide Sargasso Sea. Both novels follow young women from the West Indies struggling to survive in patriarchal societies. While Voyage in the Dark is set in 1920s London and Wide Sargasso Sea is set in the 19th century Caribbean, both novels explore themes of female loneliness, despair, and oppression under patriarchal systems. Neither novel follows a traditional bildungsroman structure, as the protagonists are unable to develop or find their place in society due to their marginalized positions. The analysis draws connections to Jack Halberstam's concept of "shadow feminism" to understand how Rhys
The document provides a detailed summary and analysis of key scenes and characters in the movie Watchmen directed by Zack Snyder. It analyzes four important scenes that establish characters and the alternate universe setting. It also examines the complex characters of Rorschach, The Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan in depth. Finally, it discusses the major themes of the movie such as who watches the watchmen, never compromising morality, and the view of life as an insignificant phenomenon. The document analyzes key elements of the plot, characters, and themes of the Watchmen movie.
4
This document contains a review of the historical novel "HHhH" by Laurent Binet about the assassination of Nazi Reinhard Heydrich. The review discusses how Binet insists on only using factual details and criticizes other historical fiction works for fictionalizing details, yet still engages in some fictionalization himself. While Binet's style is distracting at times, the facts about Heydrich's rise to power as a key Nazi leader and his role in the Holocaust are compelling. The review also provides background on Heydrich and the plot of Binet's novel focusing on the Czech assassins who killed Heydrich in 1942.
This document provides an agenda and information for an online EWRT 1C class on Franz Kafka's novella "The Metamorphosis". The class will include reading the novella, an introduction to Kafka as the author, and discussing the historical and literary contexts. Kafka is introduced as an Austrian-Jewish writer from Prague in the late 19th/early 20th century. The novella is then analyzed including its use of third-person narration from the perspective of Gregor Samsa after he transforms into an insect. Students are assigned to read the novella and answer one of several discussion questions in 200-300 words for homework.
This document provides an overview of some key characteristics of science fiction as a genre based on an analysis of several example texts. It discusses how SF explores transformations to human existence through imagined technologies and ideas. It presents its stories in the context of scientific thought at the time. It also often values progress, tolerance, democracy and rationalism. The document then analyzes some works by John Wyndham to illustrate examples of changed existences, a background of science, tolerance and rationalism in his stories.
This document discusses the concept of "historiographic metafiction", a type of postmodern fiction that is both metafictional and historical in its references to past texts and contexts. It argues that postmodern fiction engages with both literary and historical intertexts through parody and intertextuality. By embedding these intertextual pasts, postmodern fiction both asserts and questions notions of history and literature as human constructs. This doubles as a formal marking of historicity. The document provides examples of novels that exemplify historiographic metafiction, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and The French Lieutenant's Woman.
This document provides an overview of Victorian pornography and how it is defined. It discusses how pornography emerged as a distinct genre in the 18th century aimed at arousing audiences for commercial gain. Victorian pornography in particular targeted upper and middle class men as an exclusive genre. The document analyzes six Victorian pornographic novels published between 1828-1908 and discusses how they will be examined through the lenses of rape pornography, flagellation pornography, and theories of sadism. The overall argument is that Victorian pornography constructs women in complex and ambivalent ways beyond just portraying an idealized "pornotopia".
The document compares how The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen, and Power Politics by Margaret Atwood portray female protagonists struggling against the restrictive expectations of patriarchal societies. All three works illustrate how the women attempt to establish independent identities separate from their prescribed social roles, using symbolic elements and the protagonists' growing self-awareness of their oppression.
This document discusses metalepsis in drama and provides background information on postmodern literature. It begins by defining mimesis and diegesis as two ontological frames in drama. It then provides context that postmodernism emerged after World War II as a reaction to the new state of the world. It lists several key characteristics of postmodern literature, including a focus on themes of memory, loss, death, and meaninglessness. It notes that postmodern works often feature fragmentation, discontinuity, uncertainty, experimentation, limited points of view, nonlinear narration, intertextuality, deconstruction, the absurd, magical realism, pastiche, and metalepsis.
Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern mediaSianLynes
Some audiences are not convinced by postmodern media because postmodern works deliberately distort reality, rely heavily on intertextuality and references that some viewers may not understand, and reject traditional narratives. Postmodern works like the film "Drive" and the TV shows "Flight of the Conchords" and "Family Guy" confuse and frustrate some viewers through their manipulation of elements like time, space, narrative, and their self-reflexive style over coherent plot. Likewise, Lady Gaga's stage persona and music rely heavily on references and simulations of identity that cause some to distrust her as an authentic artist. For these reasons, some find postmodern media vacuous and trapped in meaningless references rather than producing new meaningful content.
The Coen Brothers are known for their quirky dark comedies like Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Ladykillers. They often work together, with Joel directing and Ethan producing. They have been nominated for 10 Oscars, winning for screenwriting Fargo and No Country for Old Men. Their films have been described as postmodern due to their self-referential storytelling and examination of genre conventions. One example is their film Fargo, which pastiches the film noir genre against a snowy backdrop.
This document discusses various artists and their approaches to narrative in contemporary art. It examines different types of narratives such as cultural narratives, disrupted narratives, meta-narratives, and performed narratives. Various artists are mentioned who employ techniques like montage, nonlinear time, incorporating fiction and reality, and questioning traditional narrative structures. The document also references theories around narrative from thinkers like Barthes, Deleuze, Guattari, and Ricoeur.
The document discusses various concepts related to narrative theory, including binary oppositions, levels of narrative, and frames. It examines how some films by David Lynch seem to contradict common assumptions about causality, linearity, and character identity in narratives. The document also discusses the concepts of multiplicity, becoming, simulation, and rupturing narratives. It provides examples of artworks that demonstrate these concepts, challenging traditional understandings of narratives.
The document discusses the rise of the novel as a genre in the 18th century. It provides definitions of the novel and traces its origins from prototypes in Elizabethan literature. The rise of the novel coincided with the rise of the middle class in Europe as printing technology advanced and literacy rates increased. Early novels focused on middle-class protagonists and included elements of realism to engage readers. Major novelists like Defoe, Fielding, and Richardson helped establish the novel as a new legitimate form through styles like the epistolary, realistic, and philosophical novels.
Laura Mulvey argues that mainstream cinema uses the male gaze to manipulate visual pleasure, coding eroticism into patriarchal order by making women passive objects for the male viewer. She draws on Freudian concepts like scopophilia, or pleasure in looking, which privileges the male perspective. However, fetishistic scopophilia can reduce women to sex symbols to resolve men's fear of femininity. While the male gaze remains dominant in media, society is becoming less patriarchal, requiring more eroticism to maintain visual pleasure in cultural works.
Laura Mulvey is a prominent British feminist film theorist who developed the influential concept of the "male gaze" in cinema. She argued that classical Hollywood films positioned the male viewer to identify with male protagonists and objectify female characters who were presented as objects of male desire. Her 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" used psychoanalytic concepts from Freud and Lacan to analyze how the cinematic apparatus reinforced gender stereotypes and the objectification of women on screen.
Laura Mulvey developed the concept of the "male gaze" in her 1975 essay, arguing that mainstream cinema reflects the underlying patriarchal power structure of society by privileging the male perspective over the female. The male gaze objectifies women on screen for the pleasure and view of the presumed male viewer. Women are often displayed as erotic objects to be looked at rather than active agents. This diminishes women's identities and reduces them to their appearance rather than their personality.
Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze Theory Researchskywalker97
Laura Mulvey was a British feminist film theorist who developed the influential Male Gaze Theory. She argued that mainstream cinema represented women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male heterosexual gaze. Films were constructed to be viewed through the perspective of a heterosexual man, which objectified and degraded women on screen. The camera would linger on the female form and present women as "to-be-looked-at." This imbalance between the male gaze and female gaze reinforced patriarchal norms and could negatively impact how women saw themselves. While critics argued her theory did not account for diverse spectator experiences, the Male Gaze Theory was seminal in shifting film theory towards psychoanalysis and feminist perspectives on objectification and representation of
Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" theory argues that audiences view films from a heterosexual male perspective, focusing on how men look at women, how women see themselves, and how women view other women. The camera often objectifies women by focusing on their physical features and bodies rather than other aspects. While some critique that women may enjoy this attention, Mulvey's theory remains relevant as businesses still use attractive women in advertising to target male audiences.
Laura Mulvey analyzed how mainstream films appeal to the "male gaze" through the representation of women as passive objects for the male spectator to look at and desire. She argued that films encourage identification with active male protagonists and voyeuristic or fetishistic viewing of female characters. This reinforces patriarchal notions of masculinity and femininity for the benefit of the presumed male audience.
This document provides exam advice and discusses key topics to analyze for the film Vertigo. It recommends doing either the Critical Review/Writing question or the Specific question as they are easier than the Critical Approaches question. For Vertigo, some of the main debates that could be analyzed are how it is a film about film through identification and obsession, its portrayal of the gendered look and female object, use of recurring motifs and symbols, and interpretation of the Madeleine and Judy characters. It also lists debates around the spectator relationship to the character Scottie, use of locations, success as a thriller, problems from a narrative realist perspective, its undisputed status, and critical reception.
Laura Mulvey developed the theory that in films, the audience views the narrative from the perspective of a heterosexual male, and the camera objectifies female characters who experience the story secondarily by identifying with male characters. Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist born in 1941 who worked at the British Film Institute and currently teaches at Birkbeck, University of London.
This document summarizes a research project examining how the emergence of photographic pornography in the 19th century coincided with shifts in conceptions of public and private life. The researcher aims to understand how pornography functioned as a "world-making text" during a time that changed views of public and private. Specifically, the researcher will analyze how the new technology of photography mediated representations of the female body in pornography and what kind of public was called into being through these early pornographic photographs. Key questions addressed are how notions of public and private broke down around pornography and the implications of feminist critiques viewing pornography as embodying the powerlessness of the gender being represented.
This document summarizes the history and key developments in feminist film theory from the 1960s to the present. It discusses the major theorists and texts that shifted the focus from class to examining feminine identity and gender construction. Theories analyzed how women were portrayed in films and the male gaze of the spectator. Psychoanalytic approaches examined concepts like scopophilia and how cinema reinforced patriarchal ideals. Later works addressed issues like bisexual spectatorship and challenged the notion that femininity must be defined in relation to masculinity.
This document discusses various perspectives in feminist film theory, including the male gaze, female gaze, oppositional gaze, and matrixial gaze. It explores how early feminist film theory, beginning with Laura Mulvey's concept of the male gaze, viewed women as sexual objects for the male viewer's pleasure. Later theories proposed the ideas of the female gaze, where women can objectify men, and the oppositional gaze, where marginalized groups critique stereotypical representations. The document also examines post-feminism and whether contemporary female characters truly move beyond earlier feminist politics.
An Imperial Monstrosity Colonialism in FrankensteinJordon Brown
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Horror films capture humanity's collective fears and provide communal catharsis by reflecting the ideas and fears of the society in which they were created. While the formula of horror films remains largely the same, the specific monsters and threats change over time to symbolize a culture's dominant anxieties, such as conformity during the McCarthy era as seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Horror has its roots in ancient myths and provides a safe way to confront real fears through symbolic fantasy threats. The genre comments on issues like racism, war, and technology by addressing what troubles a whole society's unconscious.
The Concept of Feminism in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House by Rayees Ahmad Gana...Rayees Ganaie
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The document provides an overview of several postmodernist theories and theorists related to genre. It discusses John Fiske's theory of intertextuality and how audiences make sense of genres based on cultural knowledge. It also mentions Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Claude Levi-Strauss, Gerard Genette, and their contributions to understanding genres and intertextuality. The document then discusses some key postmodernist thinkers like Baudrillard, Lyotard, Jameson, and their perspectives on simulation, rejecting grand narratives, and viewing postmodernism as responding to late capitalism.
Frankenstein – Day TwoCSCL 3461 – 25 January 2017.docxhanneloremccaffery
Frankenstein – Day Two
CSCL 3461 – 25 January 2017
1
Creation and Creator
the act of creation and the obligations of the creator are central to this section
first in Victor’s regret for bringing his creature into the world, where he “wished to extinguish that life which I had so thoughtlessly bestowed” (87)
then in the creature’s words, where he asks “[h]ow dare you sport thus with life?” (92)
finally in Victor’s contemplation of “what the duties of a creator towards his creature were” (94)
Creation and Creator - Questions
Why is Victor almost immediately stricken with regret for creating the creature?
Why does the creature consider Victor to be sporting with life, and is he so cavalier?
What are Victor’s obligations towards the creature?
Nature
nature, a constant presence throughout the novel, receives direct attention in this section
specifically in relation to its salutary effects on Victor: “These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling; and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquilised it” (90)
Nature - Questions
Why do these scenes have such a soothing effect on Victor?
How might his relative insignificance in the face of grand nature allow him some perspective on his situation?
How might nature function only as a distraction from William’s murder?
Crime and Criminals
crime, and those who commit it, appear frequently in these chapters
first in the suggestion that “[n]othing in human shape could have destroyed that fair child. He was the murderer!” (75)
then in Victor’s suspicions that “the daemon, who had (I did not for a minute doubt) murdered my brother, also in this hellish sport have betrayed the innocent to death and ignominy?” (81)
finally in his fears that “the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness” (86)
Crime and Criminals - Questions
Why is Victor so sure that the creature killed William, in the absence of any real evidence?
What might the creature’s potential framing of Justine suggest about his potential for higher-level thinking?
Why is Victor so sure that further crimes are to follow?
Barbarity
the notion of barbarity appears frequently as well, first in Victor’s lamentations about man’s supposed superiority: “why does man boast of sensibilities superior to those apparent in the brute; it only renders them more necessary beings” (91)
later in the creature’s reflections on his treatment by those he encounters, which he calls “the barbarity of man” (98)
Barbarity - Questions
Why does humanity consider itself superior to simpler beings?
How are humans considered to be “necessary beings”?
How does the treatment that the creature receives point out the barbarity of man?
East versus West
Clerval pursues “the design of making himself complete master of the oriental ...
This document discusses key concepts in postmodernism. It outlines how postmodernism breaks from modernism by resisting narratives of progress and universal truths. Jean-François Lyotard is discussed for introducing the idea of the collapse of "grand narratives" and meta-narratives. Jean Baudrillard explores how objects take on sign and symbolic value in consumer culture, and how the proliferation of images and signs can create a "hyperreality" that makes it hard to distinguish reality from simulation.
Postmodern media differs from other media in several key ways:
1) It opposes modernist ideas like objective truth and focuses instead on subjectivity and relativism.
2) It frequently references and comments on other media texts through techniques like parody and pastiche.
3) It lacks linear narratives and instead embraces fragmentation and irony.
This document provides an overview of the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. It notes that he was an English poet and Jesuit priest in the late 19th century. As a student at Oxford, his tutors included Walter Pater and Benjamin Jowett and he was influenced by aesthetic theories. His poetry was not published in collected form until after his death in 1918 but influenced many 20th century poets. The document also includes a short YouTube video of Hopkins reciting his poem "The Windhover."
This document provides exam advice and discusses key topics related to analyzing the film Vertigo using different film theory approaches. It recommends doing the critical review/writing question first as it is easier than the critical approaches question. It then lists several common film theories like feminist, narrative, genre, and auteur theory. For the Vertigo analysis, it outlines the major debates around interpreting the film's narrative, characters, symbolism, locations, genre, and critical reception.
Documentaries claim to show reality but actually show a version of it from a certain point of view. There are three main modes of documentary: expository documentaries guide viewers through material using voiceovers, interviews and footage; interactive documentaries feature the filmmaker who actively engages with the material; and reflexive documentaries play with conventions and do not push a particular position, instead raising questions about objectivity and truth. Most documentaries contain elements of different modes and cannot be easily categorized.
The document outlines a revision session plan for a 2 hour and 45 minute exam divided into three sections: World Cinema, Spectatorship Topics, and Close Critical Study. Section A focuses on contextual and textual questions about world cinema films. Section B requires applying ideas about spectatorship and readings to documentary films. Section C involves critically analyzing a single chosen film and demonstrating awareness of critical debates around the film. The revision plan provides sample questions and approaches for successfully answering different question types in each exam section.
After Judy dyes her hair blonde, Scottie is still not satisfied because she has not styled her hair in the neat bun that Madeleine wore. He insists she put her hair up, demonstrating his desire to transform Judy into his idealized version of Madeleine. Judy allows herself to be controlled by Scottie in this way in order to gain his love. The scene illustrates Scottie's obsessive need to recreate Madeleine and Judy's willingness to become the object of his desires.
Wikus is an unlikable character who is clumsy, cowardly, and patronizing towards his Black subordinates. However, he is earnest and eager to please, which makes him somewhat sympathetic. The film effectively depicts the aliens as disgusting creatures that embody racist stereotypes, treating them like cockroaches and depicting them as addicted to cat food. It also "others" Nigerians in a similarly disturbing way. By making the audience view the aliens through a racist lens, the film highlights how racist ideologies function to dehumanize and objectify others.
While big budget Hollywood films are common, some low budget films have achieved great box office success. The Conjuring (2013) had a budget of $20 million and grossed $318 million worldwide. Saw (2004) was made for $1.2 million and grossed $103 million globally. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) had a tiny $400,000 budget but grossed $46 million. The Blair Witch Project (1999) cost only $60,000 to make and grossed $248 million worldwide.
While big budget Hollywood films are common, some low budget films have achieved great box office success. The Conjuring (2013) had a budget of $20 million and grossed $318 million worldwide. Saw (2004) was made for $1.2 million and grossed $103 million globally. Napoleon Dynamite (2004) had a tiny $400,000 budget but grossed $46 million. The Blair Witch Project (1999) cost only $60,000 to make and grossed $248 million worldwide.
The impact of digital technology on productionsmagdeburg
Digital technology has impacted film production, distribution, and exhibition in several ways. Films are easier and cheaper to make with smaller, lightweight digital cameras and editing software that allows for special effects. They can also be more easily distributed and promoted through online marketing campaigns and global releases of digital data files. While digital offers more viewing options on different screens and in 3D, it raises debates around piracy, image quality, and whether it helps or hurts independent films.
The influence of online fandom on film productionsmagdeburg
Fans actively engage with films they are passionate about by researching all aspects of production and sharing their thoughts, interpretations, and interviews with others online. Their predictable consumption habits allow corporations to target them through merchandise and marketing. The rise of the internet has given fans a global platform to immediately and freely express themselves, influencing film production, promotion, and distribution. Studios now directly engage fans through early screenings and social media to minimize risks and costs.
This document outlines potential exam questions for a film studies course focusing on documentaries and the spectator experience. The questions address how different types of documentaries provide varying spectator experiences, the importance of trusting the documentary filmmaker, how viewing context influences response, and whether spectators approach documentaries with more critical awareness than fiction films. Additional questions explore issues of manipulation in documentaries, the pleasures of viewing them, how real people/situations provide more challenge, and whether engaging spectators cinematically makes for the best documentaries.
This document contains notes from viewings of the documentary film Senna (2010) directed by Asif Kapadia. It discusses the film's narrative structure, use of footage, and techniques for manipulating spectator responses. The notes analyze how the film tells the story of Brazilian race car driver Ayrton Senna in a way that is similar to a fiction film, with Senna as the protagonist and identifiable scenes of drama and action. Key questions examine the relationship between the spectator and screen, the effect of point-of-view filming, the impact of including an antagonist in the narrative, and how the use of archive footage and non-diegetic music shape emotional responses to Senna and the inevitable conclusion of his life.
The document describes 6 modes of documentary filmmaking: expository, observational, interactive, reflexive, poetic, and performative. Expository documentaries use voiceovers and a straightforward structure to guide viewers, but can be overly didactic. Observational documentaries aim to record events objectively without influencing them, but may lack context. Interactive documentaries feature the filmmaker's engagement and perspective. Reflexive documentaries draw attention to documentary conventions. Poetic documentaries emphasize visuals and mood over explicit arguments. Performative documentaries construct subjective truths significant to the filmmaker.
This document discusses spectatorship and how different spectators can have varying emotional responses to the same film due to their personal contexts. A spectator's response is dependent on their own experiences, knowledge, ideologies, and how they relate the film to their own memories. The document also presents different types of readings spectators can have, from preferring the intended meaning to having an oppositional reading that does not recognize the intended meanings.
The document discusses the themes in the film District 9, including the segregation and lack of assimilation of aliens who are forced to live in a dystopian area called District 9 under harsh conditions, with humans from the MNU corporation controlling and possessing power over the aliens. A theme of xenophobia and racial division exists as the comfortable lives of humans are contrasted with the aliens' struggle to survive in District 9.
The aliens in District 9 are seen as repulsive scavengers forced into make-shift concentration camps where they live in squalid conditions without basic rights. As the film develops, the aliens are shown to be intelligent beings who care for their children and want to return home, representing racial divisions and functioning as an allegory for apartheid and segregated minorities. While physically distinct from humans, the aliens are ultimately victims who are "othered" and denied dignity through physical segregation and an inability to assimilate or leave Earth.
The document announces an Easter revision class to help students prepare for the FM2 exam, which is in approximately 4 weeks. It provides the date and location for the all-day revision session on Wednesday April 23rd in room 1CN03 to support students with revising for the 3 sections of the upcoming exam.
Article 3 the imposter -psychological journeysmagdeburg
The documentary film The Imposter examines the bizarre true story of a French man who in 1994 impersonated a missing American teenager. Interviews with the director Bart Layton and producer Dimitri Doganis express their ongoing surprise and confusion over how the imposter, Frederic Bourdin, was able to convincingly convince the teenage boy's family in Texas that he was actually their missing nephew. Both the filmmakers and audiences are left wondering who exactly was conned in this astonishing crime of impersonation.
Bart Layton's documentary The Imposter tells the incredible but true story of Frédéric Bourdin, a French man who convinced a Texas family he was their missing teenage nephew. Layton's film deliberately blurs the line between fact and fiction to unsettle viewers and get them to empathize with Bourdin at first. Layton interviewed Bourdin, who was easy to persuade to tell his story since he craves attention, as well as the victimized Texas family, who did not want to relive the ordeal but provided candid details of their deception. The film examines how Bourdin maintained the ruse for so long and what it says about how people can convince themselves of untruths.
Orpah Winfrey Dwayne Johnson: Titans of Influence and Inspirationgreendigital
Introduction
In the realm of entertainment, few names resonate as Orpah Winfrey Dwayne Johnson. Both figures have carved unique paths in the industry. achieving unparalleled success and becoming iconic symbols of perseverance, resilience, and inspiration. This article delves into the lives, careers. and enduring legacies of Orpah Winfrey Dwayne Johnson. exploring how their journeys intersect and what we can learn from their remarkable stories.
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Early Life and Backgrounds
Orpah Winfrey: From Humble Beginnings to Media Mogul
Orpah Winfrey, often known as Oprah due to a misspelling on her birth certificate. was born on January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Raised in poverty by her grandmother, Winfrey's early life was marked by hardship and adversity. Despite these challenges. she demonstrated a keen intellect and an early talent for public speaking.
Winfrey's journey to success began with a scholarship to Tennessee State University. where she studied communication. Her first job in media was as a co-anchor for the local evening news in Nashville. This role paved the way for her eventual transition to talk show hosting. where she found her true calling.
Dwayne Johnson: From Wrestling Royalty to Hollywood Superstar
Dwayne Johnson, also known by his ring name "The Rock," was born on May 2, 1972, in Hayward, California. He comes from a family of professional wrestlers, with both his father, Rocky Johnson. and his grandfather, Peter Maivia, being notable figures in the wrestling world. Johnson's early life was spent moving between New Zealand and the United States. experiencing a variety of cultural influences.
Before entering the world of professional wrestling. Johnson had aspirations of becoming a professional football player. He played college football at the University of Miami. where he was part of a national championship team. But, injuries curtailed his football career, leading him to follow in his family's footsteps and enter the wrestling ring.
Career Milestones
Orpah Winfrey: The Queen of All Media
Winfrey's career breakthrough came in 1986 when she launched "The Oprah Winfrey Show." The show became a cultural phenomenon. drawing millions of viewers daily and earning many awards. Winfrey's empathetic and candid interviewing style resonated with audiences. helping her tackle diverse and often challenging topics.
Beyond her talk show, Winfrey expanded her empire to include the creation of Harpo Productions. a multimedia production company. She also launched "O, The Oprah Magazine" and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, further solidifying her status as a media mogul.
Dwayne Johnson: From The Ring to The Big Screen
Dwayne Johnson's wrestling career took off in the late 1990s. when he became one of the most charismatic and popular figures in WWE. His larger-than-life persona and catchphrases endeared him to fans. making him a household name. But, Johnson had ambitions beyond the wrestling ring.
In the early 20
Everything You Need to Know About IPTV Ireland.pdfXtreame HDTV
The way we consume television has evolved dramatically over the past decade. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has emerged as a popular alternative to traditional cable and satellite TV, offering a wide range of channels and on-demand content via the internet. In Ireland, IPTV is rapidly gaining traction, with Xtreame HDTV being one of the prominent providers in the market. This comprehensive guide will delve into everything you need to know about IPTV Ireland, focusing on Xtreame HDTV, its features, benefits, and how it is revolutionizing TV viewing for Irish audiences.
At Digidev, we are working to be the leader in interactive streaming platforms of choice by smart device users worldwide.
Our goal is to become the ultimate distribution service of entertainment content. The Digidev application will offer the next generation television highway for users to discover and engage in a variety of content. While also providing a fresh and
innovative approach towards advertainment with vast revenue opportunities. Designed and developed by Joe Q. Bretz
Leonardo DiCaprio House: A Journey Through His Extravagant Real Estate Portfoliogreendigital
Introduction
Leonardo DiCaprio, A name synonymous with Hollywood excellence. is not only known for his stellar acting career but also for his impressive real estate investments. The "Leonardo DiCaprio house" is a topic that piques the interest of many. as the Oscar-winning actor has amassed a diverse portfolio of luxurious properties. DiCaprio's homes reflect his varied tastes and commitment to sustainability. from retreats to historic mansions. This article will delve into the fascinating world of Leonardo DiCaprio's real estate. Exploring the details of his most notable residences. and the unique aspects that make them stand out.
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Leonardo DiCaprio House: Malibu Beachfront Retreat
A Prime Location
His Malibu beachfront house is one of the most famous properties in Leonardo DiCaprio's real estate portfolio. Situated in the exclusive Carbon Beach. also known as "Billionaire's Beach," this property boasts stunning ocean views and private beach access. The "Leonardo DiCaprio house" in Malibu is a testament to the actor's love for the sea and his penchant for luxurious living.
Architectural Highlights
The Malibu house features a modern design with clean lines, large windows. and open spaces blending indoor and outdoor living. The expansive deck and patio areas provide ample space for entertaining guests or enjoying a quiet sunset. The house has state-of-the-art amenities. including a gourmet kitchen, a home theatre, and many guest suites.
Sustainable Features
Leonardo DiCaprio is a well-known environmental activist. whose Malibu house reflects his commitment to sustainability. The property incorporates solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, and sustainable building materials. The landscaping around the house is also designed to be water-efficient. featuring drought-resistant plants and intelligent irrigation systems.
Leonardo DiCaprio House: Hollywood Hills Hideaway
Privacy and Seclusion
Another remarkable property in Leonardo DiCaprio's collection is his Hollywood Hills house. This secluded retreat offers privacy and tranquility. making it an ideal escape from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles. The "Leonardo DiCaprio house" in Hollywood Hills nestled among lush greenery. and offers panoramic views of the city and surrounding landscapes.
Design and Amenities
The Hollywood Hills house is a mid-century modern gem characterized by its sleek design and floor-to-ceiling windows. The open-concept living space is perfect for entertaining. while the cozy bedrooms provide a comfortable retreat. The property also features a swimming pool, and outdoor dining area. and a spacious deck that overlooks the cityscape.
Environmental Initiatives
The Hollywood Hills house incorporates several green features that are in line with DiCaprio's environmental values. The home has solar panels, energy-efficient lighting, and a rainwater harvesting system. Additionally, the landscaping designed to support local wildlife and promote
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Barbie Movie Review - The Astras.pdffffftheastras43
Barbie Movie Review has gotten brilliant surveys for its fun and creative story. Coordinated by Greta Gerwig, it stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Insight. Critics adore its perky humor, dynamic visuals, and intelligent take on the notorious doll's world. It's lauded for being engaging for both kids and grown-ups. The Astras profoundly prescribes observing the Barbie Review for a delightful and colorful cinematic involvement.https://theastras.com/hca-member-gradebooks/hca-gradebook-barbie/
The Evolution of the Leonardo DiCaprio Haircut: A Journey Through Style and C...greendigital
Leonardo DiCaprio, a name synonymous with Hollywood stardom and acting excellence. has captivated audiences for decades with his talent and charisma. But, the Leonardo DiCaprio haircut is one aspect of his public persona that has garnered attention. From his early days as a teenage heartthrob to his current status as a seasoned actor and environmental activist. DiCaprio's hairstyles have evolved. reflecting both his personal growth and the changing trends in fashion. This article delves into the many phases of the Leonardo DiCaprio haircut. exploring its significance and impact on pop culture.
The Unbelievable Tale of Dwayne Johnson Kidnapping: A Riveting Sagagreendigital
Introduction
The notion of Dwayne Johnson kidnapping seems straight out of a Hollywood thriller. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, known for his larger-than-life persona, immense popularity. and action-packed filmography, is the last person anyone would envision being a victim of kidnapping. Yet, the bizarre and riveting tale of such an incident, filled with twists and turns. has captured the imagination of many. In this article, we delve into the intricate details of this astonishing event. exploring every aspect, from the dramatic rescue operation to the aftermath and the lessons learned.
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The Origins of the Dwayne Johnson Kidnapping Saga
Dwayne Johnson: A Brief Background
Before discussing the specifics of the kidnapping. it is crucial to understand who Dwayne Johnson is and why his kidnapping would be so significant. Born May 2, 1972, Dwayne Douglas Johnson is an American actor, producer, businessman. and former professional wrestler. Known by his ring name, "The Rock," he gained fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) before transitioning to a successful career in Hollywood.
Johnson's filmography includes blockbuster hits such as "The Fast and the Furious" series, "Jumanji," "Moana," and "San Andreas." His charismatic personality, impressive physique. and action-star status have made him a beloved figure worldwide. Thus, the news of his kidnapping would send shockwaves across the globe.
Setting the Scene: The Day of the Kidnapping
The incident of Dwayne Johnson's kidnapping began on an ordinary day. Johnson was filming his latest high-octane action film set to break box office records. The location was a remote yet scenic area. chosen for its rugged terrain and breathtaking vistas. perfect for the film's climactic scenes.
But, beneath the veneer of normalcy, a sinister plot was unfolding. Unbeknownst to Johnson and his team, a group of criminals had planned his abduction. hoping to leverage his celebrity status for a hefty ransom. The stage was set for an event that would soon dominate worldwide headlines and social media feeds.
The Abduction: Unfolding the Dwayne Johnson Kidnapping
The Moment of Capture
On the day of the kidnapping, everything seemed to be proceeding as usual on set. Johnson and his co-stars and crew were engrossed in shooting a particularly demanding scene. As the day wore on, the production team took a short break. providing the kidnappers with the perfect opportunity to strike.
The abduction was executed with military precision. A group of masked men, armed and organized, infiltrated the set. They created chaos, taking advantage of the confusion to isolate Johnson. Johnson was outnumbered and caught off guard despite his formidable strength and fighting skills. The kidnappers overpowered him, bundled him into a waiting vehicle. and sped away, leaving everyone on set in a state of shock and disbelief.
The Immediate Aftermath
The immediate aftermath of the Dwayne Johnson kidnappin
From Teacher to OnlyFans: Brianna Coppage's Story at 28get joys
At 28, Brianna Coppage left her teaching career to become an OnlyFans content creator. This bold move into digital entrepreneurship allowed her to harness her creativity and build a new identity. Brianna's experience highlights the intersection of technology and personal branding in today's economy.
1. FAAAM, le 4 avril 2008, Taïna Tuhkunen
tainatuhkunen@hotmail.com
Tania Modleski (1941 - ) Alfred Hitchcock (1899 -1980)
Tania Modleski, The Women Who Knew Too Much :
Hitchcock and Feminist Theory
Tania Modleski, The Women Who
Knew Too Much : Hitchcock and
Feminist Theory, New York:
Routledge, Chapman & Hall, 1988.
Tania Modleski, Hitchcock et la
théorie féministe: Les femmes qui en
savaient trop, trad. Par XX, Paris:
L'Harmattan, collection « Champs
Visuels Etrangers », 2002.
The seven films under Tania Modleski's critical eye : Blackmail (Chantage) – 1929; Murder
(Meurtres) – 1930; Rebecca – 1940; Notorious (Les Enchaînés) – 1946; Rear Window (Fenêtre sur
cour) – 1954; Vertigo (Sueurs froides) – 1958; Frenzy – 1972.
Introduction
« “Hitchcock betrays a resemblance to one of his favorite character types – the person who
exerts an influence from beyond the grave” (1).
« Hithcock's great need (exhibited throughout his life as well in his death) to insist on and
exert authorial control may be related to the fact that his films are always in danger of being
subverted by females whose power is both fascinating and seemingly limitless. » (1)
« [I]dentification on the part of women at the cinema is much more complicated than
feminist theory has understood : far from being masochistic, the female spectator is always
1
2. caught up in a double desire, identifying at one and the same time not only with the passive
(female) object, but with the active (usually) male subject. (2)
«[O]ne of my book's main theses is that time and again in Hitchcock films, the strong
fascination and identification with femininity revealed in them subverts the claims to
mastery and authority not only in the male characters but of the director himself. (3)
« But what I to want to argue is neither that Hitchcock is utterly misogynist nor that his
work is largely sympathetic to women and their plight in patriarchy, but that his work is
characterized by a throroughgoing ambivalence about femininity » (3).
« [D]espite the often considerable violence with which women are treated in Hitchcock's
films, they remain resistant to patriarchal assimilation. » (3)
« One of the problems with Mulvey's theory was that her picture of male cinema was so
monolithic that she made it seem invincible » (9)
« Moreover, I believe we do need to destroy « man-centered vision » by beginning to see
with our own eyes – because for so long we have been not only fixed in its sights, but also
forced to view the world through its lens. » (9)
« [S]ome feminists have criticized Mulvey's « inadequate theorization of the female
spectator, » others have objected to her restriction of the male spectator to a single, dominant
position, arguing that men at the movies – at least at some movies – may also be feminine,
passive, and masochistic. » (9)
« As Hitchcock films repeatedly demonstrate, the male subject is greatly threatened by
bisexuality, though he is at the same time fascinated by it; and it is the woman who pays for
this ambivalence – often with her life itself. » (10)
« [I]n decisive moments in the history of the subject, the individual learns to take pleasure
in pain and loss. Cinematic activity, like many other forms of cultural activity, replays these
moments of loss, which are as pleasurable for the male as for the female spectator ». (12)
« “An analysis of voyerism and sexual difference is only one of the ways in which a book
taking a specifically feminist approach can provide a much needed perspective on Hitchock's
films. Indeed, there are many questions that I think begin to look very different when seen by
a woman”. (14)
« Feminism, too, has by now its pieties and routines. Insofar as it all too readily accepts the
ideals of male semiotic systems, feminism also needs to be challenged by a « frankly
inventive » approach, an approach that, if it seems alien at first, is so only because it is situated
in the realm of the uncanny – speaking with a voice that inhabits us all, but that for some of
us has been made strange through fear and repression. » (15)
2
3. Rebecca
(1940)
The enigma between mothers & daughters » : « Although in Psycho the mother/son
relationship is paramount, I will argue that in films from Rebecca on it is more often the
mother/daughter relationship that evokes this threat of identity and constitutes the main
« problem » of [Hitcock's] films. » (5)
Adaptation of a « feminine text » : « Hitchcock's own
dismissal of the film [Rebecca, based on Daphne du Maurier's
novel (1939)1] contains a definition of this term, 'novellettish':
« Well, it's not a Hitchcock picture, » he remarked to Truffaut;
« it's a novellette, really. The story is old-fashioned; there was a
whole school of feminine literature at the period, and though I'm
not against it, the fact is that the story is lacking in humor. »2 (42)
« A woman's film »? : « Selznick believed his production of
Rebecca would appeal especially to women, whom he expected
to identify strongly with the main character (« I know just how
she feels; I know just what she's 'going through'). His emphasis on
the female audience's potential to emphathize closely with the
heroine coincides with the culture's view [...] of women as closer to the (textual) body than
men and thus ready to surrender themselves freely to the fantasies offered by the « woman's
film »3 . (44)
A female oedipal trajectory : « [A]ll Hollywood narratives are dramatizations of the
male oedipal story, of man's entry into the social and Symbolic order » 4 [...] I do, however,
maintain that all kinds of interesting differences arise when a film features a woman's
trajectory and directly solicits the interest of a female audience. Besides [...] do not believe in
the assimilation of femininity by patriarchy can ever be complete. My own analysis is
dedicated to tracing the resistances that disturb the text. » (45)
The undead rival : « Rebecca is the story of a woman's maturation, a woman who
must come to terms with a powerful father figure and assorted mother substitutes (Mrs.
Van Hopper, Rebecca, and Mrs. Danvers). That Rebecca is an oedipal drama from the
feminine point of view has been noticed by Raymond Durgnat : « For the heroine fulfills the
archetypal female Oedipal dream of marrying the father-figure, who has rescued her from
the tyranny of the domineering old woman (i.e. mother). But in doing so she has to confront
the rival from the past, the woman who possessed her father first, who can reach out and
possess him once again. »5 (46)
What does Maxim de Winter want? : « Feminist critics have noted [...] the conflicting
attitude towards the female expressed in film noir: on the one hand, the domestic woman is
sexually nonthreatening, but she is boring; on the other hand, the femme fatale is exciting,
but dangerous. From the woman's point of view, then, man becomes an enigma, his desire
1 Le film The Birds (1963) de Hitchcock est également inspiré d'une des nouvelles de Daphne du Maurier.
2 François Truffaut, Hitchcock, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983, p. 127.
3 Mary Ann Doane, The Desire to Desire: The Woman's Film of the 1940's, Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1987.
4 According to the French film theorist Raymond Bellour.
5 Raymond Durgnat, The Strange Case of Alfred Hitchcock, or the Plain Man's Hitchcock, Cambridge, MIT Press,
1974, p. 168.
3
4. difficult to know. Although women have not had the chance to articulate the problem as
directly as men have, they could easily ask Freud's question of the opposite sex: what is it
men want? » (50)
The desire of women for other women : « Freud himself was forced to reject the notion
of an Electra Complex, according to which the young girl experiences her mother primarily as
an object of rivalry, and to admit the importance of the young girl's early desire for her
mother.6 Moreover, he recognized how frequently this desire persists throughout the woman's
life, influencing her heterosexual relationships, as well as her relationships with other
women. In Rebecca, the heroine continually strives not only to please Maxim, but to win the
affections of Mrs. Danvers, who seems herself to be possessed, haunted by Rebecca and to have
a sexual attachment to the dead woman. Finally, it becomes obvious that the two desires
cannot coexist: the desire for the mother impedes the progress of the heterosexual union.
Ultimately, then the heroine disavows her desire for the mother, affirming her primary
attachement to the male. [...] Finally, there is nothing left for the heroine but to desire to kill the
mother off, a desire which [...] entails killing part of herself, for she cannot, like the male,
project the woman as « other », « as difference », thereby seeming to establish a secure sence of
her own identity. » (51-52)
The conspicuous absence of Rebecca : In Rebecca, however, the sexual woman is
never seen, although her presence is strongly evoked throughout the film, and so it is
impossible for any man to gain control over her in the usual classical narrative fashion. [...] In
her discussion of the system, Kaja Silverman notes, « Classic cinema abounds in shot/reverse
sho formations in which men look at women. »7 [...] But in Rebecca the beautiful, desirable
woman is not only never sutured in as object of the look, not only never made a part of the
film's field of vision, she is actually posited within the diegesis as all-seeing » (52).
The identity labyrinth :« [In Rebecca] Hitchcock found one of his « proper » subjects –
the potential terror and loss of self involved in identification, especially identification with a
woman. / Rebecca thus provides one final ironic instance of the notion that the feminine is
that which subverts identity – in this case, the identity of the auteur, the Master of the
labyrinth himself. » (55)
Rear Window
(1940)
Negation of woman's view : « According to Mulvey, both Rear Window (1954) and
Vertigo (1958) are films « cut to the measure of male desire » - tailored, that is, to the fears and
fantasies of the male spectator, who, because of the threat of castration posed by the woman's
image, needs to see her fetishized and controlled in the course of
the narrative. »8 (73)
Metacinematic commentary : « [S]pectators identifying
with the chair-bound, voyeuristic protagonist find themselves in
complicity with [L. B. Jeffries's] guilty desires. Bocause of
Hithcock's relentlent insistence on the male gaze, even critics like
Robin Wood, who are anxious to save the film for feminism,
restrict themselves to discussing the film's critique of the position
6 Sigmund Freud, « Femininity, » New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, New York: Norton, 1965, pp. 105-7.
7 Kaja Silverman, The Subject of Semiotics, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 225.
8 Laura Mulvey, « Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, » Screen 16, no. 3 (1975), p. 17.
4
5. of the hero and, by extension, of the male spectator whose « phantasy position the hero
occupies »9(73).
Just another Peeping Tom? : « A number of critics [...] have pointed out that the film's
protagonist is fixated at an infantile level of sexual development and must in the course of
the narrative grow into « mature sexuality » : Jeffries's voyerism goes hand in hand with an
absorbing fear of mature sexuality. » (75)
The fantasy of the fragmented female body : « [A]s the narrative proceeds, the
sexuality of the woman, which is all along presented as threatening, is first combated by the
fantasy of female dismemberment and then, finally, by a re-membering of the woman
according to the little boy's fantasy that the female is no different from himself. » (76)
A perfect & busy princess : « Lisa Freemont is anything but helpless and incapable,
despite Mulvey's characterization of her as a « passive image of visual perfection - and this is
where the « problem » lies. (76) (« [T]he woman is continually shown to be physically superior
to the hero, not only in physical movements but also in her dominance within the frame », 77).
Powerful parallelisms : Important parallels are [...] set up between Lisa and Thorwald,
on the one hand, and Jeff and the [murdered] wife, on the other » (77) ; « Jeff and Anna
Tornwald as mirror images » (82).
Dressing & gazing : « Given this emphasis on the woman's mobility, freedom and
power, it seems odd that an astute critic like Mulvey sees in the image of Lisa Freemont only a
passive object of the male gaze. Mulvey bases her judgment on the fact that Lisa appears to be
« obsessed with dress and style, » continually putting herself on visual display for Jeff » (77)
The dollhouse or split screen effect : « Just as the cinema, in its resemblance to the
mirror at the mirror stage, offers the viewer an image of wholeness and plenitude, so too does
the dollhouse world of the apartment buildings Jeff watches » (79).
« One the one hand, then, there is the anticipation of bodily « perfection » and unity
which is, importantly, first promised by the body of the woman; on the other hand, the
fantasy of dismemberment, a fantasy that gets disavowed by projecting it into the body of the
woman, who, in an interpretation which reverses the state of affairs the male child most fears,
eventually becomes to be perceived as castrated, mutilated, 'imperfect'. » (80)
Fear of the Gothic mariage plot : « [Hitchock's] continual reworking of the « female
Gothic » - « wedlock is deadlock » (82).
« Feminine » spectatorship : « Suspense », Truffaut has claimed, « is simply the
dramatization of a film's narrative material, or, if you will, the most intense presentation
possible of dramatic situations »; suspense is not « a minor form of the spectacle, » but « the
spectacle in itself ». Granted this equivalence between suspense and « the spectacle » , the
narrative, might we not then say that spectatorship and « narrativity » are themselves
« feminine » (to the male psyche) in that they place the spectator in a passive position and in a
submissive relation to the text? (83)
« Thornwald proceeds to complete the « feminization » process by crossing over to Jeff's
apartment and placing Jeff in the role previously played by Mrs. Thornwald and then by Lisa
– that of victim to male violence. Jeff's « distancing » techniques, of course, no longer work,
and the flashing bulbs only manage to slow Thorwald down a bit. Like Lisa, Jeff finally
becomes a participant in his story, though his identification with the female character is
involuntary. Imposed on him by Thornwald, whose visit comes like the return of the
9 Robin Wood, « Fear of Spying », American Film, Nov 1982, p. 31-32.
5
6. repressed. » (83-84).
Analogies between cinema and « woman » : «[T]he film's ending and its « narrative
image » of Lisa in masculine drag reveals the way in which acceptable femininity is a
construct of male narcissistic desire, despite Freud's claim that women tend to be more
narcissistic than men, who supposedly possess a greater capacity for object love. The film has
consistently shown the opposite state of affairs to be the case, and in particular has revealed
Jeff to be unable to care for Lisa except insofar as she affirms and mirrors him : significantly,
he becomes erotically attracted to her only when she begins to corroborate his interpretation of
the world around him » (84) ; « One of the most highly reflexive of films, Rear Window
indicates that what Jean-Louis Baudry has argued to be characteristic of the cinematic
apparatus as a whole – and in particular of projection – is also true at the level of narrative,
which functions as masculine fantasy projected onto the body of a woman.10 » (84).
Lisa's last look : « We are left with the suspicion (a preview, perhaps, of coming
attractions) that while men sleep and dream their dreams of omnipotence over a safely reduced
world, women are not where they appear to be, locked into male « views » of them,
imprisoned in their master's dollhouse. » (85)
Psycho
(1960)
Hitch and the slashed gender : « Some critics have even argued
that Hitchcock's work is prototypical of the extremely violent assaults
on women that make up so much of our entertainment today. Thus,
Linda Williams has claimed that Psycho is the forerunner of the
slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s. » (17)
The inevitable psychic movie experience : « I have never
really not been discussing Psycho – to my mind, the quitessential
horror film. » (102)
The ultimate encounter with the « mother » : « [F]ear of the
devouring, voracious mother is central in much of Hitchcock's work,
even where it is not immediately apparent. By « voracious », I refer to
the continual threat of annihilation, of swallowing up, the mother
poses to the personality and identity of the protagonists. Far from being the mere gimmick
criticism has tended to consider it, the mother's psychic obliteration of her child in Psycho is
paradigmatic of the fear haunting many Hitchcock films, at least since Rebecca. Julia Kristeva
has theorized that such a threat constitutes the very « powers of horror ». In Kristeva's account,
phobia and the phobic aspects of religion are all ultimately linked to matrophobia and are
concerned with warding off the danger of contact with the mother : « This is precisely where
we encounter the rituals of defilement... which, based on the feeling of abjection and all
converging on the maternal, attempt to symbolize the other threat to the subject : that of being
swamped by the dual relationship, thereby risking the loss not of a part (castration) but of the
totality of his living being. The function of these religious rituals is to ward off the subject's
fear of his very own identity sinking irretrievably into the mother. »11 (107)
10 Jean-Louis Baudry, « Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus », Apparatus : Cinematographic
Apparatus : Selected Writings, ed. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, New York: Tanam, 1980, p. 29.
11 Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
6
7. Hitchcock's catholicisms : « « It is a commonplace, at least since Rohmer and Chabrol's
study12, to consider Hitchcock a Catholic director, especially insofar as he is concerned with
the themes of guilt and original sin. It seems to be possible to deepen this insight of the
religious nature of Hitchcock's work, endeavoring to get beyond the platitudinous in order to
understand the strong hold Hitchcock has had on the public imagination right up to the present
day. Thus we may speculate that Hictchcock films enact « rituals of defilement », evoking and
then containing the fear of women that lies at the heart of these rituals. » (107-108).
Hitchean « clairvoyant cannibalisms » : « Hitchcock's fear and loathing of women is
accompanied by a lucid understanding of – and even sympathy for – women's problems in
patriarchy. This apparent contradiction is attributable to his profound ambivalence about
femininity, ambivalence which, in Frenzy, reaches an extreme form that I have accounted for
psychoanalytically by analysis of the cannibalism motif. In Freudian theory, as we have seen,
the individual at the cannibalistic stage wants to destroy the object by devouring it, but he also
wishes to preserve it and to assimilate it. [...] I do mean to insist on the importance of the fact
that woman is never completely destroyed in these films – no matter how dead Hitchcock
tries to make her appear, as when he inserts still shots in both Psycho and Frenzy of the female
corpse. There are always elements resistant to her destruction and assimilation. [...] Even more
importantly, the film links the sexual violence it depicts to a system of male dominance rather
than confining it to the inexplicable behaviour of one lone psychopath »(112).
« In contrast to Psycho, which in promotions and in the film itself had titillated spectators
with hopes of seeing Janet Leigh's breasts but which had withheld the full sight of the desired
objects, Frenzy shows an extreme closeup of the woman's breast as she struggles to pull her
bra back over it, all the while murmuring the words of a psalm. It is all anything but lovely; it
is infinitely sad, pathetic, among the most disturbing scenes cinema has to offer. » (113)
Afterword
« Feminist criticism has frequently tended to see only one aspect of female spectatorship
– either the complicity or the resistance; I have argued throughout this book, however, that
woman's response is complex and contradictory and requires an understanding of woman's
placement on the margins of patriarchal culture – at once inside and outside its codes and
structures. » (116-117)
Dialectics of male desire : « On more than one occasion, I have quoted Jean-Paul Sartre,
whose work seems to me to capture more than that of any other thinker the impossible
dialectis of [male] desire. In a passage that could stand as the epigraph for many of
Hitchcock's films, Sartre writes, '[T]he lover's dream is to identify the beloved object with
himself and still preserve for it its own individuality : let the Other become me without
ceasing to be the other. To know [the body of the other] is to devour it yet without consuming
it. »13 ( 117)
Risking the punisment : « If women in Hitchcock texts are routinely punished for their
refusal to acknowledge male authority [...] such acknowledgment only leads to a « symbolic
murder » of woman as woman, as other. If, then, we would seek to prevent being absorbed by
male authority and male texts, we must risk punishment and withold the authorial
acknowlegment the texts exact. Feminist critics must refuse to bow before the camera's
“terrifying power” and, instead, affirm the theatrical, “treacherous” aspects of these
12 Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol, Hitcock: The First Forty-Four Films, New York: Ungar, 1979.
13 Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, New York: Washington Square, 1966, p. 10.
7
8. “seductive” texts – those parts which “know” more than their author, those moments I have
stressed here when woman resists capitulation to male power and male designs.” (119)
“Such knowledge, putting the blame for crimes against women where it belongs, is available
everywhere in the Hitchcock text if one cares to look; it has been the task of my study simply
to place this knowledge more securely than ever in the possession of women.” (121)
Laura Mulvey, « Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema » (1975)14
Hollywood cinema
- « The magic of the Hollywood style [...] arose, not exclusively, but in one important aspect, from its skilled
and satisfying manipulation of visual pleasure. Unchallenged, mainstream film coded the erotic into the
language of the dominant patriarchal order. »
The Pleasure of Looking in the Cinema
- « The cinema offers a number of possible pleasures. One is scopophilia. [...] conditions of
screening and narrative conventions give the spectator an illusion of looking in on a private world. Among
other things, the position of the spectators in the cinema is blatantly one of repression of their
exhibitionism and projection of the repressed desire on to the performer. »[...] The cinema satisfies a
primordial wish for pleasurable looking, but is also goes further, developing scopophilia in its narcissistic
aspect. »
Identification with the Image
- «Jacques Lacan has described how the moment when a child recognises its own image in the mirror is
crucial for the constitution of the ego. [...] it is an image that constitutes the matrix of the imaginary, of
recognition/misrecognition and identification, and hence of the first articulation of the 'I' of subjectivity.
[...] Quite apart from the extraneous similarities between screen and mirror [...], the cinema has structures of
fascination strong enough to allow temporary loss of ego while simultaneously reinforcing the ego. »
Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look
- « Woman's desire is subjugated to her image as bearer of the bleeding wound; she can exist only in
relation to castration and cannot transcend it. [...] Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for
the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through
linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place of bearer, not
maker, of meaning. »
- « The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual
presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of
erotic contemplation. This alien presence then has to be integrated into cohesion with the narrative. » As
Budd Boetticher has put it: "What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She
is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who
14 Article publié d'abord dans Screen, vol. 16, n° 3, automne 1975, avant d'être réédité dans de nombreaux anthologies ou collections
d'articles, telles que The Feminism and Visual Cultural Reader, ed. Amelia Jones, New York : Routledge, 2003, p. 44-53.
Essai téléchargeable : https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Visual+Pleasure+and+Narrative+Cinema
8
9. makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance. »
- « A woman performs within the narrative, the gaze of the spectator and that of the male characters in the
film are neatly combined without breaking narrative verisimilitude. »
- « In contrast to woman as icon, the active male figure (the ego ideal of the identification process) demands
a three-dimensional space corresponding to that of the mirror-recognition in which the alienated subject
internalised his own representation of this imaginary existence. [...] The male protagonist is free to
command the stage, a stage of spatial illusion in which he articulates the look and creates the action. »
The Woman's to-be-looked-at-ness
- « But in psychoanalytic terms, the female figure poses a deeper problem. She also connotes something that
the look continually circles around but disavows: her lack of a penis, implying a threat of castration and
hence unpleasure. [...]
- The male unconscious has two avenues of escape from this castration anxiety: (1°) preoccupation with the
re-enactment of the original trauma (investigating the woman, demystifying her mystery), counterbalanced
by the devaluation, punishment or saving of the guilty object (an avenue typified by the concerns of the film
noir); or else (2°) complete disavowal of castration by the substitution of a fetish object or turning the
represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous (hence over-
valuation, the cult of the female star). »
-(2°) « This second avenue, fetishistic scopophilia, builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming
it into something satisfying in itself. (1°) The first avenue, voyeurism, on the contrary, has associations with
sadism: pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt (immediately associated with castration), asserting control and
subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness. This sadistic side fits in well with narrative.
Sadism demands a story, depends on making something happen, forcing a change in another person, a
battle of will and strength, victory/defeat, all occurring in a linear time with a beginning and an end. (2°)
Fetishistic scopophilia, on the other hand, can exist outside linear time as the erotic instinct is focused on
the look alone. These contradictions and ambiguities can be illustrated more simply by using works by
Hitchcock and Sternberg, both of whom take the look almost as the content or subject matter of many of
their films. Hitchcock is the more complex, as he uses both mechanisms. Sternberg's work, on the other
hand, provides many pure examples of fetishistic scopophilia. »
Hitchcock's Male Hero through Mulvey's Eyes
- « In Hitchcock [...] the male hero does see precisely what the audience sees. However, in the films I shall
discuss here, he takes fascination with an image through scopophilic eroticism as the subject of the film.
Moreover, in these cases the hero portrays the contradictions and tensions experienced by the spectator. In
Vertigo in particular, but also in Marnie and Rear Window, the look is central to the plot, oscillating between
voyeurism and fetishistic fascination. As a twist, a further manipulation of the normal viewing process
which in some sense reveals it, Hitchcock uses the process of identification normally associated with
ideological correctness and the recognition of established morality and shows up its perverted side.
Hitchcock has never concealed his interest in voyeurism, cinematic and non-cinematic. His heroes are
exemplary of the symbolic order and the law - a policeman (Vertigo), a dominant male possessing money
and power (Marnie) - but their erotic drives lead them into compromised situations. The power to subject
another person to the will sadistically or to he gaze voyeuristically is turned on to the woman as the object
of both. Power is backed by (a) a certainty of legal right and (b) the established guilt of the woman
(evoking castration, psychoanalytically speaking). True perversion is barely concealed under a shallow mask
of ideological correctness--the man is on the right side of the law, the woman on the wrong. »
The Male Gaze in Rear Window
« Hitchcock's (a) skillful use of identification processes and (b) liberal use of subjective camera from the
point of view of the male protagonist draw the spectators deeply into his position, making them share his
uneasy gaze. The audience is absorbed into a voyeuristic situation within the screen scene and diegesis
9
10. which parodies his own in the cinema. In his analysis of Rear Window, Douchet takes the film as a
metaphor for the cinema. Jeffries is the audience, the events in the apartment block opposite correspond to
the screen. As he watches, an erotic dimension is added to his look, a central image to the drama. His
girlfriend Lisa had been of little sexual interest to him, more or less a drag, so long as she remained on the
spectator side. When she crosses the barrier between his room and the block opposite, their relationship is
re-born erotically. He does not merely (a) watch her through his lens, as a distant meaningful image, he also
(b) sees her as a guilty intruder exposed by a dangerous man threatening her with punishment, and thus
finally saves her. Lisa's exhibitionism has already been established by her obsessive interest in dress and
style, in being a passive image of visual perfection; Jeffries' voyeurism and activity have also been
established through his work as a photo-journalist, a maker of stories and captor of images. However, his
enforced inactivity, binding him to his seat as a spectator, puts him squarely in the phantasy position of the
cinema audience. »
The Problem of Looking in Vertigo and Marnie
« In Vertigo, subjective camera predominates. Apart from flash-back from Judy's point of view, the narrative
is woven around what Scottie sees or fails to see.
I. The audience follows the growth of his erotic obsession and subsequent despair precisely from his point
of view. Scottie's voyeurism is blatant: he falls in love with a woman he follows and spies on without
speaking to. Its sadistic side is equally blatant: he has chosen (and freely chosen, for he had been a successful
lawyer) to be a policeman, with all the attendant possibilities of pursuit and investigation. As a result. he
follows, watches and falls in love with a perfect image of female beauty and mystery. Once he actually
confronts her, his erotic drive is to break her down and force her to tell by persistent cross-questioning.
II. Then, in the second part of the film, he re-enacts his obsessive involvement with the image he loved to
watch secretly. He reconstructs Judy as Madeleine, forces her to conform in every detail to the actual
physical appearance of his fetish. Her exhibitionism, her masochism, make her an ideal passive
counterpart to Scottie's active sadistic voyeurism. She knows her part is to perform, and only by playing it
through and then replaying it can she keep Scottie's erotic interest. But in the repetition he does break her
down and succeeds in exposing her guilt. His curiosity wins through and she is punished. In Vertigo, erotic
involvement with the look is disorienting: the spectator's fascination is turned against him as the narrative
carries him through and entwines him with the processes that he is himself exercising. The Hitchcock hero
here is firmly placed within the symbolic order, in narrative terms. He has all the attributes of the
patriarchal super-ego. Hence the spectator, lulled into a false sense of security by the apparent legality of
his surrogate, sees through his look and finds himself exposed as complicit, caught in the moral ambiguity
of looking. / Far from being simply an aside on the perversion of the police, Vertigo focuses on the
implications of the active/looking, passive/looked-at split in terms of sexual difference and the power of
the male symbolic encapsulated in the hero. Marnie, too, performs for Mark Rutland's gaze and
masquerades as the perfect to-be-looked-at image. He, too, is on the side of the law until, drawn in by
obsession with her guilt, her secret, he longs to see her in the act of committing a crime, make her confess
and thus save her. So he, too, becomes complicit as he acts out the implications of his power. He controls
money and words, he can have his cake and eat it. »
10